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Tag: france

While the opportunity to study abroad is hugely positive, its challenges shouldn’t be underestimated. Living abroad usually entails finding accommodation, paying bills, administrative paperwork and university level courses in a foreign language for the first time. Added to that, most of us arrived on our year abroad with few to no personal connections and so have to build friendships, routines and lifestyles from scratch. Of course all of this is exciting but can also entail a great amount of stress. The pressure of making the most of the experience, improving your language skills and succeeding academically can become overwhelming, especially when added to existing mental health conditions.

Mental Health Abroad

Along with 25% of the UK population, I have previously suffered with poor mental health and over my time abroad a number of issues resurfaced. The first time I contacted my personal tutor was in December when it was coming to the end of first term where I mentioned that the lack of clarity about the exam process was exacerbating my anxiety. In fairness my personal tutor was great and has been throughout the whole process. She sent back an informative and understanding reply, which did put me at ease somewhat.

Difficulty Accessing Support

During the second term things began to spiral out of control. I knew about halfway through that I needed to see a doctor. I tried to go to the medical centre at university in France but there was a wait hours long and I had to go to class. Furthermore, I could hardly explain how I was feeling in English so the thought of trying in French didn’t fill me with much confidence. Unsure what to do next; I thought the welfare officer at my UK university would be the best port of call. This is when things began to go downhill drastically.

I sent an e-mail explaining what I was struggling with and she replied telling me to seek medical advice and referring me to a webpage with extremely basic coping strategies. The tone and content of the email made me feel like I was wasting her time. I have since learned that the welfare tutors within each school do not have specific training and therefore are not adequately prepared to deal with the mental health needs of students. I then filled out a pretty extensive mental health assessment form via the Wellbeing Services, hoping that I could speak to someone online. It took weeks to get a response.

If I was at home, I could have gone to my doctor a long time ago. I would have also been in a much more supportive environment. The reason that things have escalated in this way is purely due to the fact that I am abroad. It takes support and understanding combined with practical solutions to help someone through a difficult period of mental health. The lack of support during the year abroad needs to be tackled immediately as it is currently putting the mental and physical health of our students at risk. I will be contacting the University directly when I get home to explain what has happened and I would like to work with them to improve the welfare system in place for outgoing year abroad students.

What to do Pre Departure

For now my advice to anyone embarking on a year abroad that has previously suffered from mental health problems would be to go to your doctor and explain that you are about to undertake a challenge, which could adversely affect your mental health. This way, they will be prepared for a potential relapse or change in medication. I would also advise sharing the details of your condition with your personal tutor before you leave so that they may be better prepared to support you if necessary. These are both ideas that I feel would have benefitted me in hindsight. The lack of welfare support offered to students on their year abroad is symptomatic of the continuing disregard of mental health, something that needs to be improved in the university system nationwide.

This post it going to be very matter of fact and detail the absolute nightmare my housemates and I have had whilst renting on our year abroad. I decided to finally compile a post detailing some of the issues because I have heard from others studying abroad (especially in France) that students are often taken advantage of by money grabbing landlords who thrive on the fact that our level of French makes it difficult for us to accurately communicate our dissatisfaction. Also, the allegations and level of language thrown at us have been nothing short of insane to the point where all we can do is laugh at how ridiculous the situation has become.

Living with a French landlord and French people in the flat above has culminated in what can only be described as targeted bullying where every single issue in the house is attributed to us. E.g. Noise, doors slamming, the vacuum cleaner being dirty (seriously) in spite of the fact there are nine people that live in this house and we represent just three of them. This has made us feel extremely unwelcome and uncomfortable in the house.

We are sent emails about pretty much anything and everything my landlady decides we have done. Offences include walking loudly, entering the house late etc.

She has tried to charge us extra for water, sending us a formal letter claiming that we have used an excessive amount and we will be charged extra. However its on a meter system and we haven’t been shown any proof of how much the water actually costs. When we sent a letter asking for proof of this she changed her mind and decided she didn’t send us a bill but it was in fact a ‘warning’.

Whilst I have not yet moved out I have heard of other students, like my friend Alex who are struggling to regain their deposits from French landlords despite leaving their flats in perfect condition and being assured the deposit will be returned in full.

Realistically, there is no solution to this problem because we all need to find accommodation when studying abroad, and the conditions in student residences are notoriously poor. However we need to raise awareness about the seriousness of this issue; just because we are foreign students does not mean we should be intimidated and taken advantage of financially.

I think being homesick is inevitable when you move to a different country. I’ve been homesick here in France more times than I can remember. It strikes at inevitable times: the birthday of someone close to you at home, when you’re feeling ill or when you’ve got a pile of uni work which you only understand about half of. But it also hits you at the most unexpected times, like when you’re travelling somewhere new and exciting , or at least getting on with your everyday routine.

I’ve been in Grenoble for seven months now and sometimes it feels as alien as the first day I arrived. I was talking to Clare, one of my best friends here, and we realised that we’d both felt pretty homesick at times but hadn’t wanted to say anything to each other. The thing about moving abroad is that you have to start all over again in terms of friends so when things get really shit sometimes you don’t feel like you can talk to the people around you because you haven’t actually known them all that long. This is a catch 22 because you then end up talking to people at home and feeling even worse, wishing you were on a plane back there.

So here’s a list of some things you could try to beat homesickness:

1. Go into a shop that you also have at home. I went into lush the other day just to look at all the bath bombs that I recognise. It’s surprisingly comforting I promise.

2. Talk to someone in the same position as you. It’s helpful to talk to any friends who are also on their year abroad as they’re likely to understand what you’re going through.

3. If you can’t talk to anyone then write it down. It’s amazing how much easier it is to deal with how you feel when you can see it physically written down in front of you.

4. Have a day off. It’s ok to spend all day binge watching your favourite series instead of immersing yourself in the target language.

5. Make a bucket list of things you want to do in your year abroad destination before you go home. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut so this can help to remind you of all the great things there is to do where you are.

6. Go to your favourite coffee shop or anywhere that has become familiar in your new home.

7. Try not to idealise your life at home. I think we can all get stuck in the ‘grass is always greener’ mindset, especially with the increased physical distance when we are abroad.

8. Do something cultural even if your friends don’t want to.

9. Think about how far you’ve come in your target language and feel accomplished. Remember when you first arrived in France and you couldn’t understand much more than bonjour?

10. Send postcards as a more personal way of keeping in touch with people back home.

After a restless nights sleep in our triple bunk beds, we woke up fairly early on our first day in Chamonix. The main thing that had attracted us to the town was the cable car which goes up Mont Blanc. However, once we got to the tourism office we were swiftly told that the cable cars were closed for refurbishment, as it’s currently low season. Not ideal to say to least.

For the first time since I arrived in Grenoble I woke up on a Saturday with no plans and no hangover (yay). Under the guise of wanting to find somewhere to get some uni work done, I chucked a few books in a bag and headed out. Considering the weather has been miserable all week, it was nice to walk into town in the glorious autumn sunshine.

Surprisingly, there are hardly any coffee shops in Grenoble (and definitely no chains like Starbucks) so I searched on google and found one on Place Championnet, just five minutes walk from Place Victor Hugo. I hadn’t looked around the Championnet quartier before but it’s definitely somewhere i’ll be returning. The array of quirky shops is interspersed with patisseries, cafes and tradition french eateries. It’s also nice that it felt a bit more out of the way compared to the packed restaurants of place grenette.

On the walk home I noticed the snowy mountain tops which was very exciting, hopefully ski season is just around the corner!

Grenoble Bastille TripLast weekend Asha came to visit and so we obviously did the typical tourist thing and headed up to the bastille via the cable cars. To be honest the weather was overcast which wasn’t ideal, but the view from the bastille itself was still beautiful. We spent about half an hour up there admiring the views, wandering around and taking selfies (obvs). It’s definitely one of the main tourist attractions here in Grenoble and only costs around eight euros for a return journey so it’s worth doing. You can also hike/cycle/run to the top if you fancy it!